Improved defensive armor for ships  and other batteries



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE..

CHARLES W. S. HEATON, OF BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVED DEFENSlVE ARMOR FOR SHIPS AND OTHER BATTERIES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,206, dated April 14, 1863.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHAELEs W. S. HEAToN, of Belleville, in the county of St. Clair and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful System of Defensive Armor for Marine and Land Batteries and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact descrip tion of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Y Figure lis a perspective view of my system of defensive armor. Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing my invention in its application to the side of a vessel which has ordinary metal armor on its surface. Fig. 3 illustrates the effect of a ball where my invention is the resisting agent, in contrast with the effect of a ball where the ordinary system of armor is adopted.

Similar letters of reference in the three figures indicate corresponding parts.

a a, Fig. l, are the vertical timbers of a vessel; B B, the longitudinal or outer timbers thereof, forming the backing to the armor. C (l are the armor-plates laid against the backing in the usual way. D D is an outer layer of timbers covering the armor-plates C C, in a manner as will be hereinafter shown, to deaden and to gradually resist the penetrating force in its passage to the plating C C. In this heavy buoyant surface lies the gist of my invention or discovery.

My invention consists, not in the introduction of wood, rubber, or any other like yielding substance behind the metal armor, but in the discovery that a timber or other yielding surface will deaden and resist the power of a cannon-ball when such wood or other surface is backed by the metal armor which usually is on the surface, and when such metal armor is backed by sufiicient wood or other backing to hold it rigidly in its normal position.

My system of armor for vessels or forts does not contemplate stopping the ball at the irnmediate surface; but the metal or armor proper is placed at an intermediate point, so that by the time the shot has reached it its momentum is so greatly reduced that it is arrested without serious injury, either from starting the bolts or fraeturing the metal armor.

The object of my system of armor is to render a war-vessel or other structure shotproof with a less amount of iron armor than is now used with that end in view. By using lessmetal and more timber Iincrease, instead of decrease, the buoyancy of a ship, and at the same time greatly increase the resisting effect of the armor-plating.

Another object which I have in view is to obviate the tendency to break the bolts or fastenings of the plating when it is struck by a ball.

The operation of my invention I will illustrate as follows, in connection with the drawings:

First. With regard to the fracturing of the bolts or fastenings, it will be seen that when the ordinary platin gis used, and is of sufficient thickness to possess initself strength and stift'- ness to break a bolt under the shock of a ball, the fracture results from this cause-to wit, the plate, being struck directly by a ball of sufficient weight to bend it, is depressed or bent inward in one direction and outward in the other. In other words, it is cupped,77 and this recoil or reaction of the plate so strains the bolts or fastenings, and at the same time acts as a blow or shock, that the bolts are torn asunder, and the result is that the heads or nuts (these being the weakest points) give way and fly off and leave the platinginsecure. By my system thisis avoided, as the ball, cornin g in contact with the wood, which is outside, is received with a less shock than when it strikes an unyielding or hard substance, and the wood, being backed up 7 by the iron, offers a gradual resistance, which increases as the force of the ball diminishes, and as the force of the ball is thus diffused over a larger surface the shock is in a great measure deadened or diffused, the plates less liable to be bent or sprung, and the bolts or fastenings much less liable to be broken.

Second. Vith regard to penetration, the advantage of wood outside ofthe iron or armor proper is, thatY the blow of the shot is received h'rst by the wood, and by the time it arrives at the iron it is so much diminished in force that it is stopped at the iron with an impacted cushion of Wood ahead of it. The reason of this is, when the iron is all laid on the outside in the ordinary manner, the presumption is that the shot is to be stopped suddenly and by main force at the immediate point of contact. The trouble is, that when shotis red against iron plating at sufficient velocity (for it is simply a question of force as now used) the plating is shattered by the irst intension, and the remaining force of the ball is sufficient to pass through the backing and to shatter it worse than it' no plating had at iirst checked it, and as wood can be made to displace or pass through wood, the ball goes through the backing, driving the wood ahead otl it and making a worse and larger hole than` if no iron had retarded its momentum, (see E, Fig.,3.) By my system the ball is not contemplated to be stopped by main force, but by gradual resistance, which increases, owing toits rigid iron backing, as the force ofthe ball diminishes. The action of my system of armor is this: When a ball comes in contact with the outerlayer of wood, which doesl not yield si.- multaneously, it is met and resisted by a yielding substancethrough which it has to cut its way under increasing resistance, for the wood, being backed by iron C, Fig. 3, andthat iron being again backed by wood, orit's equivalent, B, Fig. 3, offers much morel resistance than wood alone would do, as a ball will pass through wood, driving and bursting thewood out ahead of it, and gradually increasingthe size of the hole, as shown at E, Fig. 3, and this very fact I take advantage of, fory when iron is placed between or interposed, the wood cannot be made to displace the ironl by any sudden shock'or force, like that 'ofa ball, and as it will be readily seen that it has nowhere else to go to, C, Fig. 3, it forms an: impacted cushion, vwhich is interposed between the ball and the iron plating, and the ball is stopped without serious damage or shock. Whereas, even if the shot should not penetrate an iron surfacesuch as illustrated at F, Fig. 3-it will so indent or fracture it and start the backing77 that it will be very hard to repair, while my system can be readily repaired by the simple insertion of a plug of wood or a new piece o f timber. In practice I simply overlay the iron armor of an ordinarily-constructed vessel (which iron armor is backed up by sufcient backing to rigidly support the plates) with an outer layer of timber, D D, which timber is only bolted-on sufficiently strong to hold it to its place, as illustratedat Fig. 2.

My invention also consists in the following,

to wit: I also plate or thinly sheath this timber D D on its outer or exposed surface, not, however, to stop shot, but to prevent a raking shot7 from tearing the timber, and also to prevent the wood from being tooreadily set on iire, as such sheathing would exclude the air, and so retard combustion, (see Gr, Fig. 1.) Having thus described myimproved system of defensive armor for ships and forts of every known description, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is The employment of wood, or its equivalent, when used in the manner and for the purpose substantial] y as described.

v a CHAS. W. S. HEA'ION. Witnesses:

R.. T. CAMPBELL,

D. C. LAURENCE. 

